After Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka scored in a 2-0 win over Sevilla on Wednesday, Arsenal is almost certain to make it to the next round of the Champions League.
After two straight losses in Spain, Mikel Arteta’s team got back on track with goals from Trossard in the first half and Saka after the break at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal is in first place in Group B, four points ahead of second-placed PSV Eindhoven. They have won three of their four games.
They will definitely make it to the round of 16 if they get one point from their last two games, which are at home against Lens and away at PSV.
One thing that worried Arteta was seeing Saka limp off with an injury after he seemed to twist his ankle in the last few minutes.
That easy win over Sevilla was the best way to forget about a rough patch that included a League Cup loss to West Ham and a Premier League start that ended with a loss at Newcastle.
Arteta was very angry after the loss to Newcastle, where Anthony Gordon scored the game-winning goal, which was controversially given by VAR. His anger hasn’t gone away in the days since.
Arteta called the decision “embarrassing” and a “disgrace,” and Arsenal backed him up by saying in a statement that the loss was caused by “yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors.”
Arsenal easily beat Sevilla, who are currently at the bottom of Group B without a win. There were no more VAR problems to make Arteta change his colour.
He said that his team needs to be “absolutely ruthless” and “suffer” their opponents if they want to go far in the Champions League this year.
His message was taken to heart by the Gunners, who beat Sevilla from the very beginning to the very end.
A couple of weeks ago, Arsenal beat Sevilla 2-1 in Spain. The defending Europa League champions once again couldn’t handle the Gunners’ ruthless pace.
Arsenal that is sharp
The German player Kai Havertz had a chance to put Arsenal ahead in the first minute, but he missed the target from close range. This is in line with his poor play since joining from Chelsea.
Arsenal was still in the lead, though, and Gabriel missed a chance to score from Saka’s free kick. Ben White and Jorginho also came close from the edge of the area.
Arsenal kept pressing thanks to Saka and Gabriel Martinelli’s sharp raids. In the 29th minute, they finally broke through with a beautiful move.
Jorginho put the Sevilla defence at ease with a beautiful pass that found Saka running down the right wing. The winger’s low cross was just right for Trossard to score from close range.
The Belgian, who is 28 years old, scored his fourth goal of the season, which showed Arteta’s good judgement in picking him as his centre striker while Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus were out with injuries.
For long stretches, Sevilla couldn’t do anything. Even when Adria Pedrosa tried to break into the Arsenal area, William Saliba made a great sliding block that stopped the threat.
Havertz has only scored one goal this season. He came close with a long-range shot early in the second half, but he was again mostly unnoticed for long stretches.
Arsenal is lucky that they don’t have to depend on Havertz to score goals all the time right now.
In the 64th minute, Saka and Martinelli worked together to score the dangerous second goal.
Martinelli sent Saka rushing into the area with a perfect pass, and he cleverly cut back inside Pedrosa before putting away a calm finish from 10 yards out.